BRITISH Columbia's auditor general is raising questions about how well this province's criminals are supervised when out in the community, saying only about a third of recommended programs are completed.
Auditor General John Doyle said there should also be better measurements in place to determine if community programs cut down on rates of reoffending.
Doyle raised his concerns in a recently released report, Effectiveness of B.C. Community Corrections, which looked at corrections programs in place for British Columbia's roughly 24,000 adult offenders who are serving part of their sentence in the community.
About 90 per cent of B.C.'s correctional population - which includes those sentenced to less than two years in jail - are serving their time in the community rather than in jail. That's an all-time high said Doyle - numbers are up 28 per cent from just five years ago. The majority of those people are on probation, which involves supervision by a probation officer either after or instead of a jail sentence.
But Doyle said while B.C. has a good community corrections program in theory, in practice, "only 35 per cent of interventions that are designed to reduce reoffending are ever completed."
That means, "potential risks to public safety and costs to taxpayers and victims, should offenders reoffend," he said.
Doyle said while success of the programs rely in large part on the discretion of probation officers, many of those staff have not completed appropriate training and their work is not regularly reviewed by managers. The number of cases has also been increasing faster than staffing, he noted.
Doyle has recommended that the community corrections branch do a better job of keeping track of reoffenders. He also recommended better training and supervision for probation officers.
A third of those under community supervision are on bail, which means they have not been convicted and are still waiting for their day in court. Less than 10 per cent are people who have been handed a conditional sentence order - commonly known as house arrest - to be served instead of jail time.
Of offenders being supervised in the community, 40 per cent have been charged or convicted of crimes against people - such as assault - while 25 per cent are involved in property crime - like theft. About 4,400 people under community supervision have been convicted of domestic assault while 1,300 have been convicted of sexual offences.
Programs that have been successful in cutting repeat offences include various violence prevention programs. One that did not appear to have any effect was the substance abuse management program.
About 74 per cent of those being supervised in the community have been assessed as a medium to high risk to reoffend, said Doyle. More than half have also been diagnosed with either substance abuse or mental health problems.
